Suppose that I weight my own utility such that I’m willing to buy utility at 10 utils per dollar. As gjm noted, this exchange rate should stay constant unless my utility weightings change. But suppose that there are a number of things that provide utility at this rate:
playing video games
drinking alcohol
renting fancy cars
owning a house
having children
These things become available increasingly late in life, so my consumption would increase even though I spent money rationally (well, rationally_{weighted utilitarianism}) throughout.
I’m still confused about how kids becoming more expensive is an example of becoming an increasingly good utility deal. Doesn’t it sound like the opposite? Or do you assume that the utility from parenting goes up faster as the children age than the cost does?
It doesn’t matter how the utility is distributed, just that it averages out to 10 utils per dollar (such that having the kid is a good buy overall), while the costs rise.
I am fairly confused as well, but the parent post might mean opportunity costs.
If when you are young you can buy 10 utilons per dollar and when you are older you can get 20 utilons per dollar then spending the same amount of dollars on your kids represents a greater “loss” of utilons at the later age.
Suppose that I weight my own utility such that I’m willing to buy utility at 10 utils per dollar. As gjm noted, this exchange rate should stay constant unless my utility weightings change. But suppose that there are a number of things that provide utility at this rate:
playing video games
drinking alcohol
renting fancy cars
owning a house
having children
These things become available increasingly late in life, so my consumption would increase even though I spent money rationally (well, rationally_{weighted utilitarianism}) throughout.
I’m still confused about how kids becoming more expensive is an example of becoming an increasingly good utility deal. Doesn’t it sound like the opposite? Or do you assume that the utility from parenting goes up faster as the children age than the cost does?
It doesn’t matter how the utility is distributed, just that it averages out to 10 utils per dollar (such that having the kid is a good buy overall), while the costs rise.
I am fairly confused as well, but the parent post might mean opportunity costs.
If when you are young you can buy 10 utilons per dollar and when you are older you can get 20 utilons per dollar then spending the same amount of dollars on your kids represents a greater “loss” of utilons at the later age.